BEVANS@HMCVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU (Mathemagician) (02/20/90)
Louie writes: >Can a third party, a journalist for example, "freely" quote letters that have >fallen into her hands? For instance, Politician X writes me a snotty letter. >I can't publish it since it belongs to PoliX, but I leak it to a reporter >who publishes it in the NY TIMES. Would that be legal? Nope. Again, the physical form of the letter (the paper and ink/pencil/ crayon/whatever) is the property of the recipient but the words are the property of the author. If the recipient send the letter to a third party, the letter now becomes the third party's property, but the words are still owned by the author. Under the copyright law as it is inter- preted presently, many biographical works would be illegal (_Newsweek_ wrote a story about this and mentioned one work about the Kennedy's, I think.) -- Brian Evans bevans at hmcvax.claremont.edu, hmcvax.bitnet, jarthur.claremont.edu
DANGAY%UNC.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU (Daniel L Leonard) (02/21/90)
brian,
i have been told that letters from governmental agencies
are public domain and permission DOES NOT need to be
obtained. is that correct ?
dangaymike@TURING.CS.UNM.EDU (Michael I. Bushnell) (02/21/90)
The latest revision of the US Copyright statutes, to bring them in line with the Bern convention, has all but eliminated any distinction between "private" and "public" dissemination. It hasn't been tested yet, but it seems that there is no requirement that someone refrain from fair use any differently with respect to a letter as with respect to a "public" publication. The same rules seem to apply; the same language is used in the law. -mib